At HCII (photo above), I presented a paper entitled, “Diffusion of Feedback: Perceptions and Adoption of Devices in the Residential Market,” which I expect will be the last publication to come out of the uci@home project I worked on early in my graduate career. It is co-authored with three of my closest grad school pals (Angela Sanguinetti, Nora Davis, and Kristen Bendanna), two amazing research assistants that are now doing great at NYU and UCLA (Kristen Holdsworth and Jessie Baker), and our fearless faculty leaders David Kirkby and Daniel Stokols. The paper analyses survey data from 836 individuals through Rogers' Diffusion of Innovation framework to assess the current and potential market of energy feedback.

At APA, I presented on our FloodRISE project in a session on Community Resilience in the Face of Global Climate Change alongside Susan Clayton and Christie Manning. I also fulfilled my duties as Treasurer of APA's Division 34 (Environmental Psychology) and chaired two great sessions:

Environmental Activism in the Digital Age (with talks from Cindy Frantz and David Miller, President of WWF Canada)

AtIEPEC, I presented a paper entitled, “Exploring Deep Savings: A Toolkit for Assessing Behavior-Based Energy Interventions,” co-authored with my good friends Becky Ford (University of Otago) and Cindy Frantz (Oberlin College). The paper argues for a more systematic and comprehensive approach to the evaluation of behavior-based energy interventions and describes a preliminary toolkit that is currently being developed and validated in conjunction with the International Energy Agency Demand Side Management Programme (IEA-DSM) Task 24 on Behavior Change as well as two large investor-owned utilities in the state of California.

It was a great month and now I'm heading out to reboot for a week in the desert. Excited to see what the coming academic year brings...

I recently did a fun interview with my friends at EnerNOC for their Energy Smart blog. They created a two-part series from our conversation entitled, "Why VisualizingPandas Could Be the Secret to Energy Efficiency Success". You can read part 1 here and part 2 here.

I was thrilled to speak this past Saturday at the Western Psychological Association in Las Vegas. My talk was on The Psychology of Sustainability and I also introduced my friend and colleague Dr. Wesley Schultz, who gave a great presentation on "A Social Psychological Approach to Conservation". Right after me on stage? Psychology legend Dr. Philip Zimbardo, who gave a talk on "The Secret Power of Time to Influence Your Destiny". Reminded me of one of my favorite Mary Oliver quotes - what will you do with your one wild and precious life?

If you're going to be in Washington, DC this December or already plan on attending the BECC conference, join me for a fun and interactive workshop on Storytelling, Engagement, and Activism for social change (SEAchange). It will be held on Sunday, December 7 just before the conference kick-off from 1:30 p.m.-4:00p.m and I'm excited to be joined by Allison Cook from The Story of Stuff Project. The workshop is limited to only 25 participants, however, anyone can attend! See the flier below for more details.

Additionally, Allison and I will be leading the opening dessert reception at BECC with a fun storytelling activity and I'll be giving a talk on UCI's FloodRISE project Monday morning.

User-Centred Design of an Audio Feedback System for Power Demand ManagementRebecca Ford, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand; Joe Penn, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa; Yu-Chieh Liu, Ken Nixon, Willie Cronje, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa; Malcolm McCulloch, Oxford University, United Kingdom

Pumping up the Citizen Muscle Bootcamp: Improving User Experience in Online LearningBeth Karlin, Birgit Penzenstadler, University of California, Irvine, United States; Allison Cook, The Story of Stuff Project, United States

Author

I am an academic who believes the role of a researcher is not only to better understand the world but also to improve it. I work as a research psychologist, social change strategist, teacher, and program evaluator.